


Claustrophilia

by ANervousBoysLife



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: M/M, Trapped In Elevator, i dunno what else to tag ngl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 15:03:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5630926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ANervousBoysLife/pseuds/ANervousBoysLife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz despise each other. When they're trapped in an elevator together after a long meeting, they might start seeing things in a different way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Claustrophilia

**Author's Note:**

> My friend found the idea for this in a book with prompts and stuff, so I thought I'd use it.

Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump despise each other, they have ever since day one. The two work for Clandestine Corp. and both were stuck in the same goddamn meeting for an hour. Their boss loves to drone on and on about marketing, and he even uses stupid powerpoints with way too many transitions in them. The meeting was finally over when everyone rushed the door. There were quite a few people since it was a pretty important meeting. Patrick decided to stay behind and wait for the initial rush to die down. Sadly enough, Pete Wentz had the same idea.

Since it was considered impolite to give rude glares to co-workers in front of their boss, the two elected to ignore each other until it was considered safe to leave. 

The only downside to this plan was that they would have to share an elevator down. Alone. The meeting had to be held on the top floor of the building, which happened to be floor twenty-seven. Neither of them wanted to take the stairs.

When the elevator finally arrived from the bottom floor once again, the pair got on, both moving to hit the lobby button. Patrick paused then moved out of the way, letting Pete press the button. 

The ride down was tense and silent. Pete resolved to pretend he was texting on his blackberry, his work phone that was provided by the company so their workers couldn’t slack off by playing any games on their smartphones. Patrick knew he was pretending but elected to ignore it. 

The elevator suddenly shook between the twelfth and fourteenth floor, the thirteenth floor didn’t exist as it was bad luck, and came to a screeching stop. This caused Pete to look up from his phone, which he now realized had no service and was about to die.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” Patrick slammed his fist against the metal doors of the elevator, feeling the whole thing shake a little as he did so. 

“Woah, man. Maybe that’s a bad idea.” Pete placed a hand on Patrick’s shoulder to try and calm down his angry co-worker. 

Patrick just shrugged off his hand and pointed a finger at him. “Get your fucking hand off of me. Just my fucking luck to be stuck in this fucking elevator with you. Couldn’t you be useful and call for help?” The shorter man turned away and glared at the wall, which happened to be a mirror. In fact, every wall except for the one with the door had a mirror on it, like any classy elevator would.

Pete was going to tell Patrick that glaring at him through a mirror wasn’t going to make the situation any better, but he decided against it. Instead, he tried to get any signal he could by moving around the small room. When it came to a bust, he slumped down in the corner and leaned his head against the wall. “It’s no use, man. There’s no service in here.”

Patrick groaned and hit his head against the mirror. “No service, no way to get out, and I’m stuck with _you_? Just fucking great.”

“Well when you put it that way, you make it seem a lot worse than it is. Someone will find us eventually. They’re bound to notice the only elevator in this whole damn building stopped working.”

Patrick knew that was true, but he also knew that it was the end of the day, and their boss was likely to take the stairs since he’s a health freak. The next shift starts in ten hours, and it would take an hour or more for the repairman to get to the office building and fix the elevator. To be fair, they were pretty fucked.

“Hey, we should get to know each other, to pass the time, you know?” Pete seemed a little hopeful, and it seemed odd to Patrick coming from his long-time nemesis. “I know we got off on the wrong foot when I got here and started to do so well, but…”

Patrick remembers clearly the day Pete had come in from a different branch. He had upstaged Patrick on literally everything. From filing papers to making copies, he was the better man. Patrick’s friends even started to like Pete better.

“Yeah, yeah. When you basically did everything ten times better than I did. I get it. Even my friends get it.” Patrick sighed and turned back around, slumping against the wall opposite of Pete. “So, you want to get to know each other? You start.”

Pete paused, not really expecting it to work. He shrugged and took a deep breath before beginning. “Well, I come from Wilmette. My dad was a pretty good lawyer, so I had an okay childhood. I have a younger sister and a younger brother. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I was… thirteen?” He paused, not really sure where to go from there. “I was… I was in a band for a while, a few actually. Arma Angelus and Racetraitor.” 

Patrick had to cut Pete off there, because there was no way. “You’re _the_ Pete? You were a local legend! I went to one of your shows, my friend dragged me along. That’s pretty cool!” It seemed Pete had hit a sweet spot for Patrick, music. 

“Yeah, well, I ended up quitting those bands because I didn’t really like the scene. Too much prejudice and I wasn’t feeling the vibe anymore. I took up marketing in college and look where I am now.” Pete motioned to himself and smiled a little to the side. “I guess I skipped over the part where I had a kid, but you don’t want to hear my failure of a love life. Don’t worry, though. My mom has him for the night.”

Patrick shrugged. “Can’t be worse than mine. I had one girlfriend when I was in high school. She ended up cheating on me and dumping me, mostly because she thought I was gay. I mean, she wasn’t entirely wrong, but it still stung at the time.” He shrugged a little, thinking back on his teen years, “I kind of wanted to be in a band, you know. Probably playing drums and maybe doing backing vocals. I’m not much of a front man.” 

“You can sing?” Pete sounded interested, leaning forward with wide eyes, kind of like a child, “Sing for me!”

Patrick flushed and quickly shook his head. “I-I’m not… Look, I’m really out of practice an-and I’m not that good.”

“Oh, come on! It can’t be worse than my screaming was back in the day.” And Pete was right. Although Arma and Racetraitor had a bit of a following, it didn’t make his screams any better. 

Patrick just sighed and started singing Life On Mars, the first song that came to his head. Pete looked enamored, and by the end of the song, he was clapping. “That was really good. I wish I would have found you when I was trying to start up a new band. You could have changed the face of music.”

“That is a bold faced lie.” Patrick knew his voice was okay, but it wasn’t that great, “I’m no Elvis, I can’t do that.”

The conversation dwindled and soon they found themselves going back to romance. They’d lost track of time, mostly Pete speaking of old flames and how they seemed like forest fires at the time. 

“Yeah, this one girl I dated, she was something else. We were on and off for like three years. She hated my guts. I have no clue why she wanted me back so often. Oh, and one summer, I had this thing with this guy…”

Patrick had stopped listening past that, it’s not that he was being rude, it’s that he had started to daydream. He was imagining a beach with a picnic blanket spread out. On the blanket was a nice meal. What that meal was, he couldn’t tell, but it smelled fantastic. In front of him was a handsome man. He was tan and had the most attractive whiskey eyes and--

“Shit!” Patrick took himself out of his daydream. He was _not_ daydreaming about a romantic date with his newfound acquaintance and ex-nemesis. But… he was.

“Woah, dude, you okay?” Pete was suddenly by his side, “You didn’t hit your head or anything, right?”

“No, no, I’m fine. Just remembered that I left the lights on at home.” The lie came out smoothly and he seemed a bit more calm now that he had an excuse.

“Alright. Just making sure.” Pete didn’t move from his side but laid down on the floor instead, looking at the ceiling of the elevator. 

Patrick started to think. That hadn’t been the first time he’d thought of Pete in a romantic way. In fact, he’d hated Pete originally because of how damn attractive he was. He had been jealous of all the looks he had received from female and male co-workers alike. Well, that was half true. He was mostly jealous not because Pete was getting the attention he wanted, but because Pete wasn’t giving _him_ any attention. He’d wanted it from day one, but Pete never reciprocated in the way he did to anyone else. It was like he was ignoring him on purpose.

Pete went back to what he was talking about before. “Yeah, so Mikey was a cool kid, but he wasn’t really my type. He was just too…” He moved his hands around in a gesture that Patrick couldn’t comprehend. “I dunno, too Mikey I guess.”

Patrick just nodded and looked at the mirror, realizing he probably didn’t have a chance with Pete. From the descriptions of each person Pete had talked about, it seemed like he was far from those people. There had only been one guy, and he’d been tall and thin, the total opposite of Patrick. It seemed that was Pete’s type, tall and thin.

“Maybe I need to try something different.” Pete simply shrugged, stopping there.

“The only guy you’ve dated was Mikey?” Patrick cast a glance at Pete, tilting his head.

“I wouldn’t even call it dating. We just messed around a lot. I think he didn’t want a relationship nearly as much as I did.” He seemed to look a little more bummed after saying that, like there was something else he wanted to say, but wasn’t sure if he should.

Patrick hesitated before speaking quietly, “Do you still want a relationship?” He flinched a little. He didn’t mean for it to sound like he was asking Pete out, even if that was what he really wanted.

There was a heavy sigh that came from the tan man, “Patrick, I’m flattered by the offer, but I don’t want you to date me out of pity. Seriously, you deserve better.”

“I deserve better?” Patrick laughed softly and shook his head, “I don’t know where you’ve been for the past few months, but does it look like I can get better? Or that I even want it?”

Pete lifted his head and stared into Patrick’s green-blue eyes, trying to read his expression. He looked so confused and a little hurt, surprising Patrick. “You-- You can’t be serious.”

“I’m as serious as I’ll ever be, Pete.” Patrick sounded sincere, more than he had before. “I’ve kind of had a crush on you since day one.”

Pete couldn't contain himself. He launched himself at Patrick, connecting their lips in a passionate kiss. He cupped Patrick’s cheeks and kissed him with more want than he’d ever kissed anyone before.

They slowly broke apart and Pete rested his forehead against Patrick’s, smiling wider than Patrick had ever seen him smile before.  
“I’ve wanted to do that since day one.” 

 

The pair slept on the floor of the elevator, their nice jackets pulled off their shoulders and made into makeshift pillows. Of course, Patrick really didn’t need his, as he slept with his head on Pete’s chest, a hand draped over the tan man’s lower stomach. Pete ended up stuffing Patrick’s jacket under his head to give himself more cushioning.

The two woke up to the sound of the elevator door being forced open. Patrick sat up and rubbed his eyes and searched for his glasses, finding them on the floor next to him. Once he had regained his vision, he looked at the sight before him. 

There was a group of worried co-workers looking at them. 

“Are you guys alright? How long have you been stuck in there?” Eliza Yao’s voice was full of concern. Pete sat up and ran a hand through his hair, seeing the group.

“Uh.. Since Six?” Patrick checked his watch, looking at the time with wide eyes. “We’ve been stuck in here for twelve hours?”

They were taken out of the elevator and lead to the break room. Eliza gave them her lunch to eat, seeing as they hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before. 

 

Pete and Patrick were given the rest of the week off with pay as an apology from the company. They spent half of those days on dates. When they returned from their leave, they were the talk of the office. Everyone wanted to know what went down in that elevator. Though there were some rumors, what actually went down was never nearly as entertaining. So, the two let their co-workers speculate in peace, not wanting to spoil their fun.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment if anything needs to be tagged!


End file.
